AVARS. 
203 
barians, the timid monarch who then sat on the throne of the Cesars, 
courted their alliance, and purchased thei|* protection. He sent an 
ambassador to their camp at the foot of mount Caucasus, to assure 
them of his friendship, and to point the line of their invading hordes 
to the country of his enemies. 
Their camps were soon pitched on the Danube and the Elbe ; and 
their savage fury either swept from the earth, or rendered tributary to 
their dominion, many tribes of Hungary, Poland, and Germany. Their 
king still retained an attachment to the emperor, who on his side 
appeared not averse to continue the alliance, till his friendship was 
claimed by a more powerful horde, who effected to treat the Avars as 
slaves and fugitives. The Turks had pursued them from their native 
wilds to the Wolga, to Mount Caucasus, and the Euxine, and they 
now appeared in the presence of the emperor requiring him to with- 
draw his countenance from apeople whom they had followed so far as 
runaway subjects, and whom they now claimed a right to subdue 
or extirpate. The timid emperor yielded to this demand, and re- 
nounced the alliance of his friends the Avars. Their ambassadors, 
who came to renew the coalition, and to represent the advantages 
that might result from it, were dismissed without presents or promises, 
and their remonstrances or threats treated with haughty defiance. 
The king, called Chagan, and his tribe, were either awed by the 
power of the empire, or dissembled their resentment till a more con- 
venient opportunity should occur for gratifying it, and retired into 
Germany, where they met in dreadful conflict with the fierce and pow- 
erful nation of the Franks. They were obliged to withdraw from the 
neighbourhood of the Franks, after repeated defeats, and might, like 
many other hordes of those barbarous ages, have been totally extin- 
guished in their retreat to their native wilds, had they not had the 
good fortune to have formed a league with the Lombards, in conjunc- 
tion with whom they destroyed the tribe of Gepidae, and succeeded 
to their dominions. Their new allies directing their views to Italy, 
left them in possession of their extensive territories, which stretched 
from the Euxine to Germany and Prussia. They were now in a 
condition to repay the insults offered them by the Romans, and the 
most glorious of their kings, Baion, was not backward to display the 
power of his arms, and to extend the terror of his name. He made 
repeated inroads upon the empire, and demanded presents as the 
price of his retreat. Submission and exactions only increased arro- 
gance, and the value of the presents bestowed only encouraged future 
demands. The emperor Maurice found he must either become a tri- 
butary to a barbarian, or repel his incursions by meeting him in the 
field. In five battles his general was victorious, 60,000 of the barba- 
rians, with four of the king’s sons, were killed in battle, and nearly 
20,000 prisoners were taken. The Avars, however, were not finally 
subdued, and seizing the opportunity when the eastern parts of the 
empire were pressed with all the weight of hostility by the Persiasn 
kings, they renewed their dreadful inroads with augmented forces 
and more atrocious cruelties. Blood and rapine every where marked 
their progress, the most fruitful violations of nature and humanity 
every where distinguished their conduct. Their captives were either 
